Matt Damon and wife Luciana Barroso’s Golden Globes date night was interrupted by Ben Affleck’s late arrival at the ceremony.
The couple was seated in The Beverly Hilton Ballroom in Los Angeles on Sunday, January 7, when Affleck, 51, sat down next to his longtime friend. According to a video of the moment, both Damon, 53, and Barroso, 47, started laughing upon seeing Affleck.
Damon clapped his collaborator on the back before wrapping his arms around Affleck’s shoulders, holding him in a long embrace.
Damon is up for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his role in Air, which he starred in alongside Affleck. The film, which was directed by Affleck, was also nominated for Best Picture in the Musical and Comedy category.
Ben Affleck surprises Matt Damon at the 2024 #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/IoQnirXaWJ
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) January 8, 2024
Damon is up for best actor in a musical or comedy for his role in Air, which he starred in alongside longtime friend Ben Affleck. The film, which was directed by Affleck, was also nominated for best picture in the musical and comedy category.
Barroso constantly supports her husband and Affleck in their professional endeavors. She also attended the March 2023 premiere for Air and made it a family affair as she and Damon walked the red carpet in Los Angeles with three of their four daughters: Alexia, 25, Isabella, 17 and Stella, 13. Gia, 14, did not attend the event.
While Damon is nominated for Air, another project he worked on last year is also making the rounds during awards season. Damon had a supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which earned a total of eight nominations, including Best Motion Picture (Drama), Best Screenplay, Best Director and more.
While Damon wasn’t nominated for his portrayal of General Leslie “Dick” Groves, his costars Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. are up for Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.
Before signing on to the biopic, Damon was in the midst of a brief break from acting. During his hiatus, the actor approached his wife with one exception when it came to taking a job: if Nolan, 53, called him for a project.
“I had — not to get too personal — negotiated extensively with my wife that I was taking time off,” Damon recalled to Entertainment Weekly in July 2023. “I had been in Interstellar, and then Chris put me on ice for a couple of movies, so I wasn’t in the rotation, but I actually negotiated in couples therapy — this is a true story — the one caveat to my taking time off was if Chris Nolan called. This is without knowing whether or not he was working on anything because he never tells you. He just calls you out of the blue. And so, it was a moment in my household.”
Damon and Barroso tied the knot in 2005 after two years of dating. They first crossed paths in 2003 while Barroso was working as a bartender in Miami. While filming in the area, Damon discovered the bar. While he was inside the watering hole, the Oscar winner was recognized by fans and Barroso hid him behind the bar when the crowd got aggressive. However, Barrasco didn’t waste time making him earn his keep.
“So I put him to work with me! I said, ‘You know, if you’re going to be back here, you can’t just be standing there!’ He had trained as a bartender for a film years before, so he started making drinks,” Barroso reflected to Vogue in 2018. “And he made me a ton of money in tips that night because of course everyone wanted to go and see him. It turned into a really fun night and then 15 years later here we are!”
